Download files using a scatter-gather network
btdownloadheadless [ option ... ] URL btdownloadheadless [ option ... ] filename btdownloadcurses [ option ... ] URL btdownloadcurses [ option ... ] filename btdownloadgui [ option ... ] URL btdownloadgui [ option ... ] filename
This manual page documents briefly the btdownloadheadless, btdownloadcurses, and btdownloadgui commands. This manual page was written for the Debian distribution because the original program does not have a manual page.
These are all programs that allow a user to download files using bittorrent, a peer to peer, scatter-gather network protocol. They all have the same options.
These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is included below.
--responsefile filename
treat filename as a file which the server reponse was stored in. If this option is used, no filename or URL should be present on the command line.
--url url
retrieve the torrent info file from url. If this option is used, no filename or URL should be present on the command line.
-i ip | --ip ip
report ip as your IP to the tracker
--bind ip
bind to ip instead of the default
--minport portnum
set portnum as the minimum port to listen on, counts up if unavailable (default 6881)
--maxport portnum
set portnum as the maximum port to listen on (default 6889)
--saveas filename
store the downloaded file to filename, instead of querying user (gui) or using the filename stored in the torrent info file
--max_uploads num
Only allow num uploads at once (default 4)
--max_upload_rate kbytes
maximum rate to upload at in kilobytes, 0 means no limit (default 0)
--keepalive_interval secs
pause secs seconds between sending keepalives (default 120.0)
--download_slice_size bytes
query for bytes bytes per request (default 32768)
--request_backlog num
keep num requests in a single pipe at once (default 5)
--max_message_length bytes
set bytes to the maximum length prefix encoding you'll accept over the wire - larger values get the connection dropped (default 8388608)
--timeout secs
wait secs before closing sockets which nothing has been recieved on (default 300.0)
--timeout_check_interval secs
check whether connections have timed out every secs seconds (default 60.0)
--max_slice_length bytes
requests from peers larger than bytes bytes are ignored (default 131072)
--max_rate_recalculate_interval secs
connections that pause longer than secs seconds are given reduced rate (default 15.0)
--max_rate_period secs
set secs to the maximum amount of time to guess the current rate estimate represents (default 20.0)
--upload_rate_fudge secs
set the time equivalent of writing to kernel-level TCP buffer to secs (default 5.0)
--display_interval secs
update displayed information every secs seconds (default 0.1)
--rerequest_interval secs
request more peers every secs seconds (default 300)
--min_peers num
do not rerequest if we have num peers already (default 20)
--http_timeout secs
wait secs seconds before assuming a http connection has timed out (default 60)
--snub_time secs
wait secs seconds for data to come in over a connection before assuming it's semi-permanently choked (default 30.0)
--spew 1 | 0
whether to display diagnostic info to stdout. This option is not useful when using btdownloadcurses or btdownloadgui. (default 0)
--max_initiate num
stop initiating new connections when we have num peers (default 40)
--check_hashes 1 | 0
whether to check hashes on disk (defaults to 1)
--report_hash_failures 1 | 0
whether to report to the user that hash failuers occur (non-fatal, common error) (default 0)
--rarest_first_priority_cutoff num
the number of peers which need to have a piece before other partials take priority over rarest first (default 3)
bttrack(1), btmakemetafile(1), btlaunchmany(1).
More information on the BitTorrent protocol used for distributing files is available at http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/protocol.html
You will also find a full description on the advantages of the protocol in the academic paper Incentives Build Robustness in BitTorrent available at http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/bittorrentecon.pdf
This manual page was written by Michael Janssen <[email protected]>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).